


Walls

by batyalewbel



Series: Ghost Quartet [1]
Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Episode tag S01e10, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 01:12:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16566746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyalewbel/pseuds/batyalewbel
Summary: “Theo, I...I like you a lot but I think you have some things you need to work on before…”“Right, yes of course,” Theo interrupted before she could continue and her voice was breaking to pieces as she said it.“Theo?” Trish asked, her tone changing in and instant, “Are you okay?”“No,” she whispered as tears began to spill down her cheeks.





	Walls

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I like metaphors and sentence fragments and Hill House wrecked me. Enjoy.

_When I was a baby_  
_I was blessed by a stranger_  
_In waters I didn’t understand_  
_And now I’m infected_  
_With disbelief and blasphemy_  
_I’ll never have a holy land_  
_I am a ghost_  
_In the eyes of my god_

_-Starchild, Ghost Quartet_

Theo doesn’t remember much of what happened at Hill House.

That’s not true.

She _remembers everything._

But it’s all a blur.

A strange fog of fear and sadness and running and tears.

She remembers Nell.

_‘I loved you completely. And you loved me the same. The rest is confetti.’_

She remembers gripping Luke’s hand so tight she swears she could feel bones grinding and he held on just as tight. All the feelings that swirled between them through that contact felt like terror and grief doubling in on itself. Especially after Nell left and it was just the four of them. Trapped and alone.

Luke could die if they were stuck for too long, a trail of terrible blood still leaked down his chin.

So she held onto him, her thumb resting on the inside of his wrist to feel his continued pulse and feel like maybe she could keep him alive through touch alone.

In the end their dad was the one who got them out.

She felt like a child again when she saw him standing in the doorway to the red room.

Steven and dad got Luke out of the house, carrying his weight between them until he was buckled into the passenger seat of Shirley’s car.

“Go, we’ll catch up,” Dad said, “There’s one more thing we need to do.”

They both nodded because Luke needed to get to the hospital and there was no time to debate this.

\---

Shirley drove, her hands bone white on the steering wheel, cursing at every red light while Theo rested her head against the window. The only sound, aside from the rumble of the car’s engine, was Luke’s ragged breathing in the passenger seat.

Later they would arrive at the hospital.

They would spend hours in a sterile overbright waiting room in silence.

They would sit by Luke’s bed and wait until Steven arrived to tell them Dad was dead.

They would be too numb for tears.

\---

It wasn’t like the nothing that filled Theo when she had touched Nell’s corpse, it was something else. A numbness that was all raw nerves, like somebody had peeled back her skin. Like somebody had reached into her ribcage and removed her insides, leaving her hollow.

She doesn’t really remember getting up and walking into the hall.

She doesn’t remember dialing Trish’s number with trembling ungloved fingers.

_What had happened to her gloves? Were they back at Hill House?_

She dialed Trish’s number and put her phone to her ear.

It rang three times before Trish picked up.

A sigh filled Theo’s ear.

“Do you know what time it is?” Trish asked and Theo shook her head before realizing Trish couldn’t hear that.

“No, sorry.”

There was a pause. A hesitation.

“Theo, I...I like you a lot but I think you have some things you need to work on before…”

“Right, yes of course,” Theo interrupted before she could continue and her voice was breaking to pieces as she said it.

Suddenly there was grief bubbling in her chest. It threatened to spill out as she fought to take a shaky breath.

“Theo?” Trish asked, her tone changing in an instant, “Are you okay?”

And Theo thought about walls. About protections built and protections that failed.

She thought of a pair of gloves and a house that was meant to hold them all together when instead it broke them all to pieces.

“No,” she whispered as tears began to spill down her cheeks.

“Where are you?” Trish asked and she wasn’t hesitant anymore. She sounded fierce and certain. Theo gave her the hospital address and listened to the woman fumble around her room until she said, “I’ll be there in two hours. Don’t go anywhere.”

Theo sat there, not going anywhere. For two hours, she became a statue.

At one point Steven opened the door to Luke’s room and poked his head out to stare at her. Their eyes met and he nodded, almost like he was just confirming her presence before he stepped back inside the room and shut the door.

And finally, Trish found her.

“Theo?” she asked softly, sitting down beside her.

And Theo didn’t look at the other woman, she didn’t even blink. But her lip trembled.

“What happened?”

It was asked so gently. With so much more kindness than she deserved considering how she had treated Trish in every encounter they had.

It was that kindness which made the dam burst. Sobs came up her throat like bile and she had to swallow hard to contain them. Tears spilled down her cheeks unbidden and unwanted.

Still, she turned to Trish and said, “I want to tell you some things that are going to sound batshit insane.”

Trish opened her mouth, to maybe object and say of course she would believe Theo.

And Theo held up a hand to stem whatever she was about to say.

“No really, it’s insane. But it’s also true and I’m going to ask you to listen and believe me. If you can’t do that I will completely understand if you want to leave and never speak to me again.”

Her words were a calm contrast to the tears that still streamed down her cheeks. Trish stared at her with wide eyes and furrowed brows, but she nodded.

So Theo told her about growing up in a haunted house. About the visions she sees when she touches something or someone. About the ghosts, and about her mother’s suicide, and a night flight from the house. She told her about Steven’s book and Luke’s drug addiction. Shirley’s funeral home and Nell’s death. And finally she told her about touching Nell’s body, about the overwhelming numb nothing, and Luke returning to Hill House with the rest of them following. She told Trish about a nightmare of hands that her dead sister saved her from. She told Trish that Nell’s ghost spoke to them at the house and that her dad had died tonight, and that Luke was in that hospital room they were sitting across from, recovering from an injection of rat poison that she was fairly certain he did not give to himself.

Trish did not say a word during all of this. She nodded mutely when Theo had pulled up Steven’s book on Amazon as evidence. She glanced away once, at the hospital door, when Theo explained who was in there.

And when the words finally ran out, they were left with nothing but the muted sounds of the late night bustle of the hospital. An occasional PA announcement or a snatch of squeaky wheels from a gurney being rolled by.

“So?” Theo asked turning to stare at Trish, “Do you believe me?”

And still, Trish didn’t speak for the longest time.

Slowly, she reached out and took Theo’s hand and held it between both of hers.

“That’s a lot to process,” she said quietly.

“So you don’t believe me,” Theo replied and Trish shook her head, frowning as she rubbed the inside of Theo’s palm with her thumb.

“Can you…” she began and hesitated, color rising in her cheeks, “Can you see something from holding my hand right now?”

Theo bit the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to _prove_ her story. Yet it was a lot to ask a woman she barely knew for blind faith. So she gripped Trish’s hand a little tighter and closed her eyes, letting her mind open.

“You’re imagining the house…” Theo murmured, brows furrowed, “Except your picturing a castle for some reason?”

A giggle bubbled up as she said the words and Trish nodded, wide eyed as she bit back a blushing smile.

“You’re remembering Nell’s funeral,” Theo continued and winced as she saw her own face, sharp and severe as she demanded to know why Trish was there.

“And you’re really wishing you had gotten some coffee on the way here,” she finished and let go of Trish’s hand.

For a moment neither of them spoke, both of them staring straight ahead as the moment sunk in.

Abruptly Trish stood up, “Um...I’ll be right back,” she said a little too quickly and then added, “Everything’s okay I just need a second.”

Theo nodded, mute and terrified anew because now would probably be the moment Trish would leave and never look back. That’s what Theo would do if she could.

Trish turned and walked back down the hall and out of sight.

Theo stared down at the empty chair she had left and tried to just breathe normally.

There was no reason for Trish to stay, they hardly knew each other and Theo had just unloaded her entire crazy life on the woman. She wouldn’t blame Trish for leaving.

But she didn’t want her to leave.

After what felt like an age Trish reappeared in the hall and Theo openly stared as the woman walked back to sit beside her. She carried two cups of abysmal smelling hospital coffee and something else. She set the coffee down first at a little table to the left of her seat and then turned to Theo. She was carrying a pair of plastic hospital gloves balled up in her right hand. With a small smile, she handed them to Theo.

And Theo didn’t know what to say. Or what to do.

She had used up all her words.

She put on the gloves and as soon as she had, Trish was handing her one of the two cups of coffee, taking a drink from the other.

“You… You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” Theo murmured without meeting her eyes. Trish sighed and pushed the coffee into her hands.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be,” she said and there was something soft in her eyes.

Theo just nodded.

Two hours later she will bring Trish into the room to meet Steven and Shirley. Steven will look surprised but Shirley will look Trish up and down and smile a little before shaking her hand.

Two days later Trish will meet Luke and give the big man a hug like they’re old friends. Luke will return the embrace and shoot Theo a warm, yet bemused look.

Two weeks later she’ll sit next to Theo and hold her hand through Dad’s memorial service. They never recovered his body.

Two months later they will go on their first real date after Trish helps Theo move out of Shirley’s place.

Two years later there will be proposals and rings exchanged.

Trish always says she can’t even imagine what Hill House must have been like. Or what it must be like to have psychic abilities.

But she’s always there to hold Theo’s hand after a nightmare.

And that’s enough to break down all her walls.

**Author's Note:**

> They need so much therapy you guys. And I need more fanfics for this pairing because like...I think they will be very good together.
> 
> Also this series is called Ghost Quartet which is a wild musical that has ghosts, whiskey, a bear, and four friends. I think it's a little apt because...y'know...ghosts and stuff.


End file.
